


The Weight of a Feather

by Nomolosk



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23416000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nomolosk/pseuds/Nomolosk
Summary: Emilie is not getting better, and now she knows she never will. What will she do when desperation hits?
Relationships: Emilie Agreste & Nathalie Sancoeur
Comments: 16
Kudos: 32





	The Weight of a Feather

Emilie Agreste staggered out of bed and over to her vanity and lowered herself to the seat, breathing hard. Dusuu, who usually hid in her braid, flashed out and twirled around in the air with glee. 

“Oh mistress, you’re looking better every day!” the little kwami smiled.

Emilie smiled back, though the kwami was patently wrong. She wasn’t looking better, and she wasn’t getting better either. Every time she transformed the physical toll was worse. Gabriel was spending most of his time trying to find a translator for that book they’d found along with the jewels, but Emilie was beginning to think he wouldn’t find anyone. After all, they had only come across them after that disaster on the hike in Tibet. The path to the ruined temple had been unstable and there was a rockslide that left the two of them stranded on a ledge on the side of a mountain. Once they both recovered from the shock of the fall, they tried to climb back up to the path, but discovered a small cave by dint of Gabriel’s foot breaking through. And since a storm had blown up before they could reach the path, they took refuge in the cave. While they huddled together for warmth, both of them saw lightning reflecting off something shiny, and the discovery was made.

The trip had been a romantic get-away for them, although Emilie knew going into it that Gabriel would also be looking for new inspiration. Being married to an up and coming fashion designer, building his own fashion house, was sometimes less than thrilling. But he was willing to make time for her, and as long as that was the case, Emilie would stick it out. 

And it turned out that the discovery of the jewelry, and the further discoveries they made once they put the pins on, was the inspiration Gabriel had been searching for. The book they almost left behind, but Gabriel saw the connection between their new jewels and the book once they had transformed for the first time under the guidance of the kwamis- who assured them that transforming would help them to escape their predicament. He immediately saw the similarities in costume between their own appearance and the illustrations in the book.

Of course, neither of them had known that Dusuu’s peacock pin had been damaged before Emilie began to be unusually short of breath, several months after returning with their new possessions. And by then it was too late. According to Nooroo, Dusuu wasn’t able to think quite correctly while her miraculous was damaged, so she hadn’t warned them, and Nooroo hadn’t known either- not until commanded to take a closer look at the peacock pin. And now that she had a mistress again, Dusuu would not be able to stop the damage from worsening, whether Emilie transformed or not. 

From that time on, both of them had done as much as they could to find help without giving away their secret to the entire world. Both of them transformed frequently, trying to contact someone, anyone, through their respective miraculouses. They had discovered that they could contact each other through the cane and fan that materialized when they transformed, but though they had searched for others, no one ever answered their calls.

And now, Emilie was increasingly sure that no one ever would. After all, the temple they had been going to see was in ruins, destroyed- according to local legend- in a single night of flame and terror. Obviously, the pins and book were all that were left of that ancient order, whoever they were. Emilie was slowly coming to terms with the fact that her body would give out and fail her eventually, and though it was tempting to take her frustration out on Dusuu, it wasn’t really the kwami’s fault. According to Nooroo, kwamis couldn’t maintain themselves or even manifest if their miraculous wasn’t claimed by a human. And Dusuu couldn’t heal her own miraculous, or prevent the damage caused to Emilie by it’s use.

So Emilie had been thinking. As much as it pained her to think about it, Gabriel and Adrien would be on their own much sooner than either she or Gabriel had anticipated. She knew Adrien was beginning to be suspicious about why she no longer spent as much time with him. But she also didn’t want to worry him. Even now, she had to keep hope that Gabriel would find someone to help, that she could get better again. But… if the worst happened…

Gabriel needed someone to keep him grounded in reality. He always had, and probably always would. But if Emilie was no longer there to fill that role, who would do it? Emilie had the job of tending to the day to day minutiae of running a fast growing business, but she also made sure Gabriel ate and spent some time with Adrien every day, and supervised their son’s education. She couldn’t count on Gabriel to think of these things for himself. Even now, preoccupied with searching for a cure for her, he was also using their son more and more in his advertising campaigns. If Emilie was no longer there to make sure their son had a reasonable amount of time to just be a child… she was afraid Gabriel would cease to see him as anything but an asset.

A mere secretary or assistant wouldn’t have the same power to make Gabriel do things, to coax out his humanity against what he thought of as his own better judgement. Only someone who loved Gabriel would even make the attempt. And Adrien was much too young for Emilie to even think of putting that burden on his shoulders. 

Yet, how could she encourage someone else to love Gabriel in her place? She still loved him herself, so how…?

She glanced at her own reflection in the mirror- dark shadows under her eyes, a face grown thin, almost gaunt- not due to watching her diet, but rather because of the drain caused by her link to Dusuu. In fact, nowadays she could eat until she was stuffed and yet mere hours later be hungry again. 

Yet what an awesome power that link granted her. The ability to create anything and everything, as well as enhanced strength, stamina, and resistance to injury. And all that was needed was some object to contain the feather imbued with her energy and will. Emilie gasped as a thought came to her. Her eyes flashed to Dusuu.

“Dusuu,” she said, breathing heavily. “Dusuu can you, can I, create something alive?”

Dusuu stopped her mindless twirling and froze for a moment. Then she smiled beatifically. “Of course, mistress! In a way, all the sentimonsters are alive- they move, they have goals… I see no difficulty, as long as you make sure to imagine the proper internal organs.”

Emilie closed her eyes, a wave of relief bringing a wave of weakness behind it. Here was her solution, though… she would need to be careful. She had a suspicion that Gabriel would never agree to what she had in mind- mostly because it meant acknowledging their own helplessness to her continued deterioration. She knew if she told him, he would utterly reject whoever she brought in, so… he couldn’t know.

Emilie sat there and thought through the plan that had blossomed in her mind, coming up with solutions for the many difficulties she foresaw.

\----

The woman opened her eyes and stared at Emilie, expressionless. Emilie regarded her right back, holding in her hand the mild reading glasses she had imbued with the feather. Dusuu had warned her it was dangerous to let a sentimonster have control over their own object, but Emilie saw no other way. She would soon be unable to command the creature, and she trusted no one else with this kind of power. So… she would have to make sure no one else would even think to command her creation in her own stead, because no one would suspect the woman was not human.

“Hello,” Emilie said, smiling at the woman. “Do you know who I am?”

“You are my mistress,” the woman said in a flat tone. Her voice was in the alto range, not too high, not too low. Emilie imagined it could be quite soothing to listen to. She had made the woman with a slender, boyish figure, with dark hair to contrast to her own gold. After all, there was no reason to tempt her own husband, no matter how much she believed in his loyalty.

“Your name is Nathalie Sancoeur,” Emilie said now. “I am Emilie Agreste, and when I am… no longer able to, you will help my husband and my child with whatever they need help with.”

“Yes, mistress.” 

Emilie nodded, temporarily satisfied. She was beginning to feel faint, so she detransformed. She dropped into the chair she had had the forethought to bring into the chamber with her.

“Come and sit with me, and we will discuss your past… and your future,” she said, after she recovered from the coughing fit.

\----

Emilie regarded the woman in front of her, listening as she related the events of the day. She no longer thought of Nathalie as a sentimonster, but could not help being proud of her own creation. In those first few days, she had spent a lot of time with her, educating her in the necessary skills to make her simultaneously the perfect assistant for Gabriel, and an acceptable stand-in as a mother figure for Adrien. Not too loving, though… Emilie was selfish enough to not want Adrien looking up to anyone else in her own stead. But she knew that Gabriel was inclined to ignore Adrien unless it had to do with his modeling, and her son would need someone at least marginally on his side.

She had gotten the woman an apartment and had a whole history fabricated for her, using the best forgers she could find. And so, when Emilie had admitted that running the business side of the company for Gabriel was becoming too much for her, Nathalie had applied for the position of Gabriel’s assistant, and with Emilie’s urging approval, she had been hired.

It had been two months so far, and it seemed to be working out. At least, as far as Emilie could tell. All that time and energy Emilie had poured into her creation had taken a toll, and Emilie seldom had the energy to leave her own room anymore. She hated that she no longer shared a room with Gabriel, but she had to admit that she rested better on her own now, and so did he. Nathalie still kept her in the loop, giving her a daily report before going home.

Emilie watched her whenever she did come out of her room, assessing how well her commands had taken hold. Nathalie didn’t appear different from any other human woman, save that she did not show much expression either in tone or voice. But perhaps that was because of the restrictions Emilie had placed on her. She had, in the end, commanded the woman to feel love for Gabriel and Adrien, and to put their needs ahead of her own every time. So she was satisfied to see that Nathalie wasn’t an expressive person. As long-headed as Gabriel could be, he tended to overlook what was right in front of him, so he should remain unaware of Nathalie’s feelings. As for Adrien…

Emilie felt a stab of pain whenever she looked at her son, so bright and happy a child he was, just recently embarked on his teenage years. Adrien was maturing slowly but surely into what would be a very handsome man. He had just entered puberty, and it hurt her so much to realize that she might never see what kind of a man he would become. And she couldn’t bear to see the pain in his own eyes whenever she had a coughing fit or had to sit down because she was dizzy. She knew he was worried, but Gabriel still refused to tell him anything, confident that he could find a cure somehow. Emilie knew he only wanted to spare Adrien the worry and fear of knowing how ill his mother was, but… the boy already worried about her. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. She, too, wanted to spare him what pain she could.

\----

Nathalie walked into Emilie’s room and immediately knew that something had changed. Emilie lay in her bed, seemingly asleep as she spent most of her time these days. Yet, she lay too still, curled up on one side with an arm under her pillow. Her chest rose and fell, but it was the only thing that moved. Nathalie checked her watch- 10:30 pm. She had been staying later into the evening, picking up more and more of the workload as Mr. Agreste devoted most of his time to finding a cure for his wife. Yet until today Emilie had always insisted on getting a daily report. 

Nathalie knew she wouldn’t wake up, even if she tried to wake her. As a sentimonster, she was uniquely bound to the woman, and she could tell. She possessed her own amokatized object- the glasses she wore. She could leave now, and Mr. Agreste need never know that his wife’s rapid decline was due to her own existence. Yet… this woman had created her out of love for her family, because she knew that they would need support and love- two things Emilie was no longer capable of giving them herself. It was a worthy task, and Nathalie decided then and there that she would fulfill all her mistresses’ commands faithfully, even if it meant her own demise.

So instead of closing the door and walking out to make her own destiny, Nathalie Sancoeur turned around to find her employer and make sure that Emilie was properly taken care of until she could be revived. However… now that Emilie could not gainsay her, she decided she could do with a slight alteration of her look. Perhaps a streak of color in her otherwise dull hair?

\----

Somewhere in the back of Nathalie’s mind lurked the information that she had been created by Emilie Agreste to serve her family in her absence. But time and experience had intermingled that knowledge with her daily duties so much that it took an effort of will to separate the two concepts out. Nathalie had too much to do to think of her own existence much beyond being grateful that she required a lot less sleep than a normal human being. 

She had been hesitant to try helping Gabriel as anything but his loyal assistant for a long time, not sure whether she even could use a miraculous. But then everything changed on Heroes Day, when those clueless children were so close to ruining everything both her masters had worked so hard for. She had taken a chance, and fortunately Dusuu had answered to her will. Yet, she was not a normal human being, she was a sentimonster. And so, using the peacock miraculous was even more damaging for her than it would have been for a regular human. Dusuu drained whoever used the miraculous, and since Nathalie was not human and her vitality did not regenerate on its own, the magic that had created her and maintained her was disappearing at a rapid and catastrophic rate.

She knew Gabriel was worried how quickly it was taking a toll on her, yet she refused to stop. If she could be the reason he finally got his wish, that would be enough. She would have served loyally, faithfully, and completed her mission. No sentimonster could ask for more.


End file.
